Console

For most developers, sequels are an indispensable part of the business, with follow-ups crafted as long as they are profitable. Only when commercial interest wanes, is something different is usually attempted. But save for 2017’s ...

The running joke in 2016’s Ambition of the Slimes was that people didn’t take the gelatinous creatures seriously. As soon as someone dismissed the diminutive little creatures, they’d be attacked and subsequently turned into a ...

Gaming habitually centers around escapism. When dealing with the inventory of stressors that contemporary life tosses at us, we often need a reprieve. But when the medium is almost exclusively about overcoming issues that are ...

Games habitually incorporate structure. Loot-driven games like Diablo and Borderlands goad us into the incessant search for new gear. Deadlines in the Atelier and Persona games ensure we don’t dawdle. And almost any role-playing game ...

For some, the appeal of the Japanese role-playing game is rooted in the cultural. JRPGs are often masterworks of storytelling, crafting rich contexts inhibited by colorful casts of characters who experience satisfying character arcs and ...

If there’s a certainty across game narrative, it’s that the end of the world is imminent. The sole divergence is how the apocalypse will occur, whether it’s Left 4 Dead’s and The Last of Us’ ...

Across its three-decade long history, the three-dimensional dungeon crawler has been surprisingly resistant to change. Take a look back at 1989’s Dungeon Master or 1991’s Eye of the Beholder, and you’ll find a framework that ...

Pedigree is often accompanied with elevated expectations. That’s likely the case with the PlayStation 4 and PC release of Zanki Zero: Last Beginning. Uniting several members of Danganronpa’s development team with Lancarse, the team who ...

The Switch’s popularity has propelled publishers to reach into their back catalogs, with the hope that a re-issue can pad the company coffers. Occasionally, that means players receive a second-serving of a lackluster title or ...

Unsurprisingly, VIZ Media’s inaugural interactive publishing extends a chatty narrative conveyed through manga-like character portraits. What is unexpected is the ingenuity behind The World Next Door’s real-time mechanics, which offer an innovative twist on match-three ...